Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Privacy: Google+ vs Facebook


(Is there a clear winner? You can see who loses though--US! As in, USers...--jef)

Facebook’s Data Pool


Introduction.
Every person in the EU has the right to access all the data that a company is holding about him/her. You can find out how to access your facebook data on the page “your data...”. After we got the first response by facebook it was clear to us that we had to publish this information online. By doing so, we want to make facebook more transparent and show every user which data facebook is holding about us.

There is more Data. Many groups of data are not included in this first set of data we got from facebook. For example data concerning the “like”-function, tracking on other webpages, face recognition, videos, postings on other users walls, indicators for the intensity of relationships, tags that werde removes and many more were (so far) not disclosed by facebook.

Index. These groups of data were disclosed by facebook (click for more details):








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Original Files. These are some excerpts and altered versions of the original files we got from facebook. Because of privacy concerns all personal information was edited out, some files were altered in order to make editing easier.
initials and userID
date
original file
blackened excerpt
blackened file
L.B. (747***)
2011-06-07
PDF (780 pages, 34 MB)

P.E. (129***)
2011-06-07
PDF (1.142 pages, 165 MB)

M.S. (509***)
2011-06-09
PDF (18 pages, 56 KB)

M.S. (509***)
2011-07-11
PDF (1.222 pages, 496 MB)

“Removed” content that was still held by Facebook




line List of all data sets.
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Target. Shows the user’s ID number and the date of generation.
Example:
1234567890 (Generated 2011-07-11 19:06:24 UTC)
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Date Range. Shows the date of generation again.
Example:
Creation to 2011-07-11 19:06:24 UTC
line 
About Me. Shows the text the user typed into the “about me” section.

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Account End Date. This very likely saves the date that an account is scheduled for deletion.
note Note: Facebook does not delete accounts right away. If a user ‘requests’ it, the account is first deactivated and is then deleted after a 14 day period.

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Account Status History. Logs all activations/deactivations of an account, including date and time.
note Note: This activation/deactivation information is kept even though it is not necessary after the account was reactivated.
Example:
...
Time     2010-07-04 06:49:35 UTC
Status     deactivated
...
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Address. This shows the address that the user typed into his/her profile. It is unclear if and where information is saved that facebook gathered about the user from other users (e.g. when they “sync” the address of a user from the iPhone)
Example:
Street     Muserstraße 1
City     Wien
State     Vienna
Zip     1234
Country     AT
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Alternate Name. Gives back the alternative name you can type in (e.g. if you got married or if you have a name in a non-latin script)
Example:
Alternate Name     Max Mustermann
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Applications. This set of data lists all applications a user has installed.
note Note: If your friend is using an application, this application can not only access his/her information, but also yours. You have to deactivate the whole “platform” functionality to prevent this.
Example:
...
YouTube (87741124305)
...
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Chat. This section showed some old chat conversations. All data was rather recent, which means that chat messages were deleted sooner or later. It is unclear if this section is still existing after facebook recently merged its chat and messaging function into one, but seems if all chat messages are now following the rules of normal messages.
note Note: According to facebook’s privacy policy messages will never be deleted.
Example:
...
Author     Max Mustermann (123456789)
Recipients     Petra Musterfrau (987654321)
Sent     2011-06-06 19:05:56 UTC
Body     Hey, do you want to stay at my place tonight?
...
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Checkins. This category lists all places a user has checked in. The data set consists out of a page (e.g. of some company) the author, other tagged users, personal messages and an exact latitude, longitude and altitude. In addition facebook gives every checkin an individual ID number and an exact time stamp.
note Note: These check-ins can only be deleted manually on the wall of the user, otherwise they are saved forever.
Example:...
Page    B72 (1237939396779779)
Author     Max Mustermann (123456789)
Tags     Subject Id     987654321
            Subject Name     Petra Musterfrau
            Creator Id     123456789
Id     12345678901234567890
Time     2011-06-07 22:32:49 UTC
Message     Yeeehaaa Max lllloooooovvvveeessss Petra (and B72 in Vienna)!
Latitude     52.534259455465
Longitude     13-435510035703
Altitude     40.343803405762
...
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Connections. This section lists all connections to pages that the user “likes”. This can be highly relevant for advertisement targeting. These connections often consists out of rather sensitive information .
Example:
...
Uni Wien (110530002309006)
H&M (21415640912)
Atomkraft? Nein Danke! (177377935660)  [German: Atomic Engery? No, Thanks!]
Kein Facebook für Nazis - NPD Seite löschen! (120727301285953)  [German: No Facebook for Nazis - Delete the NPD’s page]
...
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Credit Cards. If you have purchased facebook credits you will find you credit card information here.
note Note: This information (and your password) is the only encrypted information, according to the privacy policy of facebook.

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Currency. Shows the local currency of the user.
Example:
EUR
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Current City. Shows the setting for the city the user is currently living in, including some ID number for the city. Very relevant for personalized advertisement.
Example:
Vienna, Austria (111165112241092)
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Date of Birth. Shows the birth date of the user. This in a required field when signing up for facebook and is one of the most important information for targeting individual groups of consumers.
Example:
08/04/1986
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Education. This set of information is a list of all educational institutions a user has been to.
Example:
...
Id     110530002309006
Name     Uni Wien
Type     College
Year     2013
...
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E-Mails. Here you will find a list of all e-mails addresses facebook linked to the user.
note Note: There may be more than the e-mails you submitted to facebook (e.g. if another user imported more e-mails that belong to you).
Examplee:
max.mustermann@aon.at
a06123456@unet.univie.ac.at
max.mustermann@lastjob.com
max.mustermann@youremployer.com 
...
 
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Events. This shows a (long) list of all ‘events’ you have ever been invited to, including all invitations you have not reacted to or rejected. Of course you have to do this manually for every event. The options for the field RSVP are “attending”, “maybe”, “declined” and “noreply”.
note Note: In many countries political or other sensitive gatherings are organized using this function.
Only if you “remove” the event by clicking on a little link on the bottom of the page the event will be deleted.
Examplee:
...
Id 38574662881
Name HOSI Fest Salzburg     [German: Party of the homosexual initiative of Salzburg]
Location Neue Arge Nonntal
Start 2008-12-21 06:00:00 UTC
End 2008-12-21 12:00:00 UTC
Rsvp maybe

Id 124023171009380
Name Kurz als Integrationsstaatssekretr? - NEIN DANKE!!   [German: Demonstration against a new state secretary]
Location FACEBOOK
Start 2011-04-19 17:00:00 UTC
End 2011-04-30 07:00:00 UTC
Rsvp noreply
...
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Family. In this sections all family members and the kind of relation is saved, if the user entered them.

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Favorite Quotes. Here you will find the ‘favorite quote’ the user entered.
Example:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks
(Mark Zuckerberg)
 
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Friend Requests. A list of all friend requests you ever got. Besides the sender, recipient and the time, facebook is also storing if you rejected it or not.
note Note: Even after you rejected the request it will not be deleted and will be stored forever.
Example:
Sender     Peter Unfreundlich (1122334455)
Recipient     Max Mustermann (123456789)
Rejected      true
Time      2008-08-25 06:50:56 UTC
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Friends. Here facebook is listing all your friends including their ID number.
note Note: It is very likely that facebook is also storing some indicators that show e.g. how intense a relationship is. So far facebook has not disclosed this information. If you remove a friend he/she will be listed in the section “removed friends”.
Example:
...
Petra Musterfrau (987654321)
Hans Mustermann (9988776655)
Holger Deutschmann (33558899)
John Smith (2288668844)
...
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Gender. Lists the gender of every user (required field). This is one of the most important criteria for targeted advertisements.

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Groups. Shows all the groups you are a member of, including the ID number of every group.
note Note: Many groups indicate your religious or political beliefs.
Examplee:
...
Piratenpartei Deutschland (19095902528)     [German: Group of the German ‘Pirate Party’]
JEDE/R SOLL HEIRATEN DÜRFEN (91860232222)     [German: Group for same sex marriage]
...
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Hometown. Shows your home town including an ID number (see also: ‘current city’)
Example:
Vienna, Austria (111165112241092)
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Last Location. Shows the last location that facebook got from you. It is unclear how facebook is gathering this information. They might be a mixture of  check-ins, data gathered from apps (e.g. on the iPhone), pictures that are geo-tagged, events you have visited, or the location of the last used IP address.
Example:
Time     2011-04-16 18:51:27 UTC
Latitude     37.34688913
Longitude     121.94080227
Altitude     0
Accuracy     675
Altitude Accuracy    -1
Heading     -1
Speed    -1
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Linked Accounts. It is very likely that here you would find information about accounts (e.g. twitter, youtube or skype) that have been linked to your facebook account. This field was empty in all sets of data we got.

line 
Locale. Shows your language settings on facebook. Basic criteria for advertising.
Examplee:
de_DE
en_US
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Logins. Shows a (long) list of all your log ins. There is one set of data generated every time you log on to facebook. It is unclear how long the information is saved, but it seems as if it is deleted sooner or later. Besides the IP address and a time stamp facebook is also logging the form of access.
note Note: With this set of information IP addresses are no longer anonymous for facebook. 
Examplee:
...

Ip     178.190.001.001
Time     2011-06-27 17:41:16 UTC
Site     WWW
Ip     46.207.001.001
Time     2011-06-27 15:58:46 UTC
Site     JABBER
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Machines. Facebook is placing a cookie on every computer that connects to it. A cookie is a ‘tag’ with a specific number that facebook can read every time you connect with them. Besides tracking, facebook is also using this information in order to match users and computers. By doing so, they get a list of every computer that someone has logged onto facebook and all users that have used this computer. In the field ‘seen count’ the number of visits of ever user is saved, this enables facebook to estimate who is the main user of a computer.
note Note: If cookies are deactivated, facebook will generate another machine every time you visit facebook.
Example:
Associated Users     Max Mustermann (123456789)
                                Petra Musterfrau (987654321)
                                Sarah Roommate (555666777888)
                                Klaus Friend (333444555666)
                                Patrick Ex-Boyfriend (111222333000)
Cookie     dTfdTOTPuniqSHGJEKAAB9Qdqj
First Seen     2010-11-12 12:47:49 UTC
Seen Count     50
 
Associated Users     Petra Muserfrau (987654321)
                                Lara Musterfrau (229966778800)
                                Max Mustermann (123456789)
Cookie      mPOATShSJEKGEKSMEL3ALu8
First Seen      2011-03-16 17:30:00 UTC
Seen Count     143
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Messages. Displays all messages you have ever sent or received on facebook. It seems that this is now including chat messages as well, since facebook merged both functions.  This set of information is usually one of the longest sets and very private (communication privacy).
note Note: According to facebook’s privacy policy, messages on facebook can not be deleted anymore. If you click on ‘delete’ the messages will only be invisible to you. US law enforcement agencies can access this information at there own liking, without judicial review.
Example:

Id       12345678901234567890
Subject      Last night
Folders      [fb]messages, [fb]sent, [fb] deleted
Deleted      true

Recipients     Max Mustermann (123456789)
                     Peter Freund (2266770044)

Author     Peter Freund (2266770044)
Sent     2008-06-05 17:09:31 UTC
Body    I keep thinking of you permanently since last night. ;-) When can we see each other again? Kiss, Peter
Author     Max Musermann (123456789)
Sent     2008-06-05 17:22:14 UTC
Body     Sorry Peter, but I was drinking too much last night.. yesterday was a big mistake!
             I am really not gay. Please do not tell Susi about what happened yesterday night!

 
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Minifeed. This lists all messages that facebook is posting automatically on your wall.  This information is not removed, so you will have to delete every post manually form your wall.
Examplee:

Time 2011-04-14 22:42:09 UTC
Story Max Mustermann commented on Petra Musterfrau's link.

Time 2010-03-16 20:47:18 UTC
Story Max Mustermann commented on Klaus Mitbewohner's status.

Time 2009-01-14 22:58:56 UTC
Story Max Mustermann likes Ignoring Application Requests.
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Name. Shows the current name of the user.
note Note: According to facebook’s terms you are breaching the contract with them, if you are not providing your real name.
Examplee:
First     Max
Middle 
Last     Mustermann

 
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Name Changes. Facebook is listing all name changes, including all former names you have used.
Example:

Time 2010-03-19 11:48:50 UTC
Old Name Max Mustermann
New Name Max NonOfFacebooksBusiness
Time 2010-06-17 22:10:35 UTC
Old Name Max NonOfFacebooksBusiness
New Name Маю Мустерманн
Time 2010-10-29 08:59:36 UTC
Old Name Маю Мустерманн
New Name Max Mustermann

 
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Networks. Gives back all the networks you are a member of. This information used to be one of the most important to limit the information others could see, before facebook changed its privacy settings.
Example:
Uni Wien (16780574)


 
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Notes. Shows all the notes you have posted on facebook. Besides the title, text and time stamps there might be tags of other users as well.
Example:
Titel     Facebook is worse than the communists
Link     notes/max-mustermann/facebook-is-worse-than-the-comunists/123456789987654321
Changed    2011-07-07 18:56:34 UTC
Updated    2011-07-07 20:09:56 UTC
Tags     Max Mustermann (123456789)
            Peter Mitbewohner (7766229900)
Text    Hey everybody, I have now checked out on europe-v-facebook.org how much information facebook is holding about me. i am from eastern Germany, so I remember my parent’s stories about the communist regime. But facebook is now holding much more informations than the communists ever had and all of it is saved within the US, a country with no sufficient privacy laws!  I will...


 
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Notification Settings. Lists all settings for notifications from facebook and all apps the user has activated.
Example:

...

Category   Facebook
Notification     Sends you a message
Email     false
Mobile Email     false
SMS     true

...

 
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Notifications. Theses are the notifications you will see when there is the red icon on the top bar of facebook’s main page.
Example:

...

Time     2011-08-01 18:00:56
Unread     false
Href:    www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=123456789123456789123456789

...
 
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Password. An encrypted version of your password.
Example:
Hash    SHAJEUSLwheAE21762SHENSE728HSJE
Last Change    2008-07-05  18:45:34 UTC
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Phone Numbers. All the phone numbers you have entered on your facebook page.
Note: Facebook is also saving phone numbers that other users have uploaded (e.g. when syncing their phone) it is unclear where they are saved.

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Photos. In this section you will find all pictures you have uploaded to facebook. This is often one of the longest categories. Besides the picture facebook is often saving much additional information, such as tagged people, the IP address of the person uploading the picture, detailed information and the precise location where the picture was taken.
Note: If you “untag” your picture the information will only be “deactivated”, but not deleted.
If you do not want facebook to use all the information stored in the picture’s metadata, they tell you to edit this information out before you upload it.
Example:
Album    Mobile Uploads
Image    [Fofo-Datei]
Titel    Picture of Max, Perta and Kurt
Photo   http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/123_123_123_123_123_n.jpg
Link     http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=123456789&set=a.123.123.123&type=1
Upload Ip     123.123.123.123
Uploaded     2009-04-10  13:06:43 UTC
Tags               Subject Id     123456789
                      Subject Name     Max Mustermann
                      Creator Id     123456789
                      Created     2009-04-10 17:25:23
                      X      51
                      Y      23
                      Subject Id     987654321
                      Subject Name     Petra Muserfrau
                      Creator Id     123456789
                      Created     2009-04-10 17:25:26
                      X      51
                      Y      23
                      Subject Id     778800445533
                      Subject Name     Kurt Schön
                      Creator Id     123456789
                      Created     2009-04-10 17:25:41
                      X      51
                      Y      23
Comments     User     Max Mustermann (123456789)
                     Text      I love this pic!
                     Time     2009-04-10 17:28:10 UTC
                     User     Kurz Schön (778800445533)
                     Text      I am looking great in this photo!
                     Time     2009-04-10 17:28:10 UTC
Taken     2009-04-10  11:03:46 UTC
Modified     1234567890
Camera Make     Apple
Camera Model     iPhone 3GS
Orientation    1
Original Width    0
Original Height     0
Exposure    
Fstop  
Iso Speed     0
Focal Lenght    
Latitude     48.123456789012
Longitude     16.3655

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Physical Tokens. This field was empty in all sets of data we got. It might be a future feature for secure identification (see wikipedia).

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Pokes. Lists all ‘pokes’ you have ever sent or received.
note Note: If you remove a poke, it is in fact just invisible for you. Facebook is never deleting pokes.
Exampledaten:
...

To      Max Mustermann (123456789)
From      Petra Musterfrau (987654321)
Time     011-06-23 07:49:16 UTC
Viewed     true


...
 
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Political Views. Here you will find all the information about your political views you entered.

line 
Privacy Settings. Lists all your privacy settings.
note Note: You can only limit what other people can view, but facebook will always see and use all information it gathered from you.
Example:
Name ABOUT_ME
Value Only Me
Name BIRTHDAY
Value Only Me
Name BLURB
Value Only Me
Name CAN_COMMENT
Value Friends Only
Name CAN_FRIEND
Value Everyone
Name CAN_MESSAGE
Value Everyone
Name CURRENT_ADDRESS
Value Friends Only
... 
line 
Profile Blurb. Shows the headline you have entered. This field was empty in all sets of information we got.

line 
Realtime Activities. Shows some of the tracking facebook is doing on its own page. This set of information was only sent to us with one access request, while it was was missing at the others.
Example:Time 2011-07-11 13:32:16 UTC
Ip 123.123.123.123
Action message_compose
Target 123456789
Metadata {"0":"hey petra,\\n\\do you want to go out with me this week? \\nCU,\\nmax"}
Time 2011-07-11 17:59:58 UTC
Ip 123.123.123.123
Action login_bruteforce_protection_delta_not_vetted
Time 2011-07-11 18:03:06 UTC
Ip 123.123.123.123
Action message_compose
Target 0
Time 2011-06-14 11:44:21 UTC
Ip 123.123.123.123
Action share_url
Time 2011-07-10 13:10:28 UTC
Ip 123.123.123.123
Action login_attempt
Metadata {"0":"max.mustermannn@aon.at"}
Time 2011-07-10 10:37:21 UTC
Ip 123.123.123.123
Action si_feedback_wall_post_delete
Target 0
Metadata {"0":"remove_content", "1":"1", "2":"20", "3":""}

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Recent Activities. Shows all the log-ins on facebook. Facebook is saving all IP addresses and cookie information as well as information about locations and time. The information is deleted sooner or later.
Example:
Ip     123.123.123.123
Time     2011-07-11 19:02:14 UTC
Type     Login
Datr     tkgbTkzc2HAEJELALEHENSke1234
Delta     Status NS_SUCCESSFUL_VETTED
Site     WWW
City     vienna
Region     9
Country     AT
User     Agent Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0)
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Registration Date. Time stamp showing the date and time you signed up.
Example:
2008-01-04  14:09:31 UTC
line 
Relationship. Information about the user’s partner. Information about family members is stored with the set “family information”
Example:
SINGLE
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Religious Views. Shows the information you entered about your religious beliefs.

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Removed Friends. Lists all the friends you have unfriended the once that unfriended you.
note Note: Facebook is not deleting former relationships. Facebook keeps them in an individual data set.
Example:

...

User     Peter Freund (2266770044)
Time     2008-06-05 23:54:03 UTC
Removed By     2266770044

...
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Screen Names. Shows your screen names of instant messaging services.
Example:
maxmustermann (skype)
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Shares. Shows all the links a user posted on his/her wall. The information has to be deleted form the wall individually.
note Note: The data sets we got from facebook included random posts that were deleted by the user.
Example:

Created     2011-01-04 14:23:01 UTC
Link     http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=123456789&id=1234567890
Summary    
Text     Comedy becomes really great, when there is a bit of truth in it...
Title     Facebook is run by CIA !!!
Url     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAq6QFt8sXU

...

Created     2011-01-24 17:08:04 UTC
Link     http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=123456789&id=1234567890
Summary    
Text     *lol* very likely the only way of getting some privacy on facebook ;-)
Title     Facebook Pricavy: A New Approach
Url     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1b7nuo55k8
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Status Updates. Shows all content a user has posted on his/her own wall.
note Note: The data sets we got from facebook included random posts that were deleted by the user.
Example:
Posted      2011-05-26 21:01:13 UTC
Status      Just had a great Wiener Schnitzel!
Mobile    
Comments     User      Peter Normal (9922663388)
                      Text      ...please let us know when it comes back out!
                      Time      2011-05-26 21:20:14 UTC
                      User      Susi Normal (22299004477)
                      Text      *yay* for @[9922663388:Peter Normal]! ;-)
                                   This is the most irrelevant post of the week!
                      Time      2011-05-26 21:21:39 UTC
 
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Vanity. Shows the nickname a user has selected.
Example:
maxmustermann
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Wallposts. This lists all postings of other users on your wall.
note Note: The data sets we got from facebook included random posts that were deleted by the user.
If you post content on another user’s wall, the content will be treated according to the other users privacy settings. This means that they might be visible for everyone on the internet!
Example:
To     Max Mustermann (123456789)
From     Peter Normal (9922663388)
Time      2011-03-14 22:01:13 UTC
Text      Hey, do you want to come along to that [great band]!
Comments     User      Max Mustermann (123456789)
                      Text      how much is the ticket?
                      Time      2011-03-15 22:20:14 UTC
                      User      Peter Normal (9922663388)
                      Text      just 10 bucks, much cheaper than that [stupid band]
                      Time      2011-05-26 21:21:39 UTC
 
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Website. Shows the URL of the webpage a user might have entered.

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Work. Shows information about employers. This information was not filled out by any of our test users.

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